The Northwich-Gadbrook Park-Middlewich-Sandbach-Crewe Line
Sixty-six years ago this week, the last regular passenger train called at Middlewich Railway Station, drawing to a close ninety-two years of passenger rail travel from the town.
The line, which was originally opened by London & North Western Railway in 1868 as a freight route to take advantage of the lucrative salt industry in Mid Cheshire, runs between Sandbach and Northwich and continues to be used to this day to move quarried stone across the country.
As a passenger service, the affectionately named “Dodger” mostly ran between Crewe and Acton Bridge, but after the Second World War, the frequent services of the 1920s and 30s never returned. The station was eventually closed to passengers on 4th January 1960, before closing entirely in 1967.
Since 1992, campaigners have sought to restore passenger services to this vital link. The Middlewich Rail Link Campaign – later renamed the Mid Cheshire Rail Link Campaign, of which I have been a proud member since 2015 – has been relentless in trying to persuade anyone that will listen of the huge benefits that investing in this connection will bring, not just to Middlewich, but to the wider subregion.
Middlewich, now a town of close to 14,500 people, is the largest civil parish by population in Cheshire not to be served by a railway station. Alongside the rest of Mid Cheshire, it is crying out for transport infrastructure investment to help it fulfil its untapped potential.
The benefits to Middlewich are obvious. For people wanting to get to the city centres for jobs, the Universities, appointments, concerts and countless other opportunities, this link makes that connection. The benefits for young people wanting to use the cinema, schools and sixth form college in Northwich should also not be overlooked.
But these benefits go both ways. Better connections to Middlewich – and indeed Gadbrook Park in Northwich, which would also be set to benefit – will encourage employers to locate here. It will allow people who previously have had to move out of town for work to stay in Mid Cheshire, and for us to retain that talent locally. And time and again we see when new railway stations open, it kickstarts regeneration in the area and lifts land values all around it.
The two studies campaigners successfully persuaded the Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership to undertake underscore these points, as well as the wider economic benefits this scheme would bring, especially when paired with the Manchester Airport Western Link.
However, it’s important to acknowledge that the context of transport infrastructure investment in the North West and across the country is very different to how things were under the last government, and that requires a rethink on how to get schemes like this over the line, however much of a “no brainer” they may seem to us.
The previous government’s approach was to announce periodic one-off funding schemes that local authorities could bid in to. Pinch-point funding. Restoring your Railways. Levelling Up.
This government has taken a different approach and instead intends to end the beauty-contest of areas bidding against each other for limited pots of funding with opaque criteria and decision-making, and instead empower Mayoral Combined Authorities to develop schemes and decide what’s best for their areas.
This is why devolution for Cheshire and Warrington is so important. Without someone to make the case for strategic cross-authority investment; without the power and budget to develop schemes to the point where an investment case can be made, we will continue to lose out to our larger neighbours to the north – and the south.
We should not kid ourselves that devolution is a panacea. The cancellation of HS2 north of Handsacre and the continued wranglings over the NPR route will mean that Network Rail and the DfT’s focus will continue to be on the Castlefield Corridor, and how to get HS2 trains to Manchester without crippling the West Coast Mainline.
But with a strong Mayor that understands the benefits that investment in our rail infrastructure can bring, we will finally have a chance to deliver the kind of rail service that Middlewich and Mid Cheshire needs and deserves.
** The information on this page was last updated on 18 September 2026.